Georgia rallies to beat CS Fullerton 64-57 in Wooden Legacy

FULLERTON — Once Yante Maten settled down, the rest of the Georgia Bulldogs followed suit.
Turtle Jackson scored 14 of his career-high 16 points in the second half, when Maten had 13 of his 15 points, and the Bulldogs rallied past Cal State Fullerton 64-57 in the opening round of the Wooden Legacy on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs (4-0) trailed the entire game until Nicolas Claxton’s tip-in with 8:53 remaining. They pulled away over the final 6 1/2 minutes when preseason SEC player of the year Maten picked up his scoring after being limited by two fouls in the first half.

“We didn’t really make any adjustments at the half. We just tried to get our guys to calm down,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “Maten played very impatiently in the first half and that led him to some bad plays. In the second half, he played with the poise of a senior down the stretch.”

Kyle Allman scored a career-high 34 points, making 13 of 15 free throws, to lead Fullerton (1-3), which never led by more than six points while playing on its home floor. It was the fourth-best scoring performance in tournament history.

“My teammates found me in the right spots,” Allman said. “I was confident in my shots.”

After huge losses in two of their first three games, the Titans played tough defense, using full-court pressure, double teams and flying around the court to stick hands in the Bulldogs’ faces. Georgia had its worst shooting performance of the season at 42 percent.